The Expendables 3 (2014)(Film Review)

The Expendables 3 (2014) Hard, hard…hard to form an opinion. Especially an objective one! Clearly it makes me happy to see all these actors together, it’s clear that this isn’t the kind of film where you worry that the bad guys will get all the bullets, but the good guys never do…Or so little: the only one who gets hit twice still survives! And none of the team touches each other, when two of them take out a tank, it’s as if all the teammates knew about it, and nobody shoots the tank, even though the helicopter was taking them out…

In short! Stallone brilliantly leads his team of young and old. He hasn’t been directing since the first opus, even though he created the story. But can we really call it a story? In my mind, this film deserves no more than three stars, and that may already be a lot. In the action genre, it fulfills its mission. But for me, the fights and brawls are almost too violent, too messy, too fast, too…I’d have preferred to see several big, cartoonish villains confronting each member of the team.

I’d have liked to see the whole team beat the shit out of the big bad. But it’s always Sly who gets to take him on, while Statham has to take on a big guy, often the right-hand man, on his side. I was expecting a little more from this third installment, which follows on from the first, whereas the second offered a few more surprises. Here, it’s a sort of déjà vu of the other two. Of course, the new arrivals are a pleasant surprise, namely Banderas, Ford and Snipes.

The appearance of Robert Davi is also nice, as he often played villains in the ’80s.I also wanted to see Jet Li back, and he’s back, even if we don’t see much of him, nor at the top of his game, since we don’t see him in his specialty of hand-to-hand combat, no martial arts whatsoever. Indeed, there are too many actors to see them all without skimming over them. What a pity! There’s a very gray image to these Expendables. It’s not a very colorful film. I’m not sure I want a fourth, or even a series.

We’ll see what Expendabelles is worth… but I smell a Flop! It won’t be the best of the series. All in all, a must-see for fans of these actors and this type of film… but not necessarily a must-see, let alone own. This director tried to be faithful to the franchise, and he was. But I’m not sure I’ll be following the rest of his career.PS : Today is May 22, 2024. A lot of water has passed under the bridge.

What I wrote in this review is no longer relevant. In fact, I’ve re-watched all the Expendables, even the next one, 4, which I said I wouldn’t watch in this review. My verdict now is: the first one isn’t the best, and is worth the highly entertaining fourth. In the end, 2 and 3 are a little superior. I’ve heard it all about this team. The best and the worst. On the other hand, Expendabelles definitely seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Still, you can’t help imagining who might have been in it. Sigourney Weaver & Linda Hamilton in any case. But these actresses are getting old. And they may have missed the boat. It’s a bit late, isn’t it? They haven’t necessarily made any better films of late, on the contrary. What a shame!

My Rating